Suicide is a choice! Do you agree?

[This Vale Of Tears]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/13/popular-blogger-pens-viral-post-calling-robin-williams-suicide-a-choice-heres-his-response-to-the-hateful-and-violent-reaction-he-received/

Robin Williams didn’t die from a disease, he died from his choice.”

That’s the title of blogger and radio show host Matt Walsh’s controversial blog post that he said immediately sparked a massive array of “hateful and violent” rebuttals. Walsh told TheBlaze that the reaction has been both diverse and overwhelming, with thousands of emails flooding in and readers raging against him on social media.

“I’ve had more people telling me to kill myself than ever before in my life,” Walsh said in an interview Wednesday.

Walsh said he initially assumed that his commentary, which addressed Williams’ death and some of the complex elements associated with suicide, would be confined to his typical readership circle after he posted it Tuesday. He said he was surprised to see it quickly go viral, sparking intense reaction across the board.

Suicide, Walsh said, is something that profoundly disturbs him. To summarize his views, he says that “depression is not a choice, but suicide is” — a contention that has led to intense debate.

“The complete, total, absolute rejection of life. The final refusal to see the worth in anything, or the beauty, or the reason, or the point, or the hope,” he wrote of the decision to take one’s own life. “The willingness to saddle your family with the pain and misery and anger that will now plague them for the rest of their lives.”

Here's my thoughts, particularly on the last statement “The complete, total, absolute rejection of life. The final refusal to see the worth in anything, or the beauty, or the reason, or the point, or the hope, the willingness to saddle your family with the pain and misery and anger that will now plague them for the rest of their lives.”

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I disagree with it all. Suicide is hurtful to us. We don't understand it, so we lash out against it, impugning those who do it with all manner of self-serving and impious motivations. We do this out of frustration and pain, for the person we're dealing with didn't die tragically in a car accident and didn't lose a battle with cancer, he died at his own hand.

But to blame the suicidal person is to fundamentally fail to understand the suicidal mind. A depressed person thinks in very tiny circles and a suicidal person thinks in even smaller circles which is why they feel they have no options. They don't kill themselves to hurt others or to "saddle their family with pain and misery" they do so out of sheer despondency and inability to see through their problems to the other side. It's a mental illness of extreme measures and should be thought of as such and people who are depressed and even suicidal, even if we can't understand why, deserve our compassion and our timely intervention if possible.

 

[Liquid Psalm]

Of course suicide is a choice. Arrived at because those who go through with it feel they have no other choice. And that can very often be the responsibility of those closest to the victim.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

Of course suicide is a choice. Arrived at because those who go through with it feel they have no other choice. And that can very often be the responsibility of those closest to the victim.

You're right and I don't mean to imply that a decision isn't involved. But when people say it's a decision to reject life, beauty and reason and a decision to inflict pain on family members I think it's a stretch simply because suicidal people, as I said, think in tiny little circles. They aren't contemplating the broader implications of their decisions, they aren't brooding over the ramifications of it. In fact, they aren't thinking much at all because their higher reasoning faculties have been disabled. People affected by suicide are devastated by it and, understandably enough, want to find a culprit. But most often there simply isn't one.

 

[Liquid Psalm]

I can't speak for those who commit suicide and what they thought or didn't think of prior to the act. I have known those who contemplated suicide and after in depth introspection they arrived at the realization, and of course this was unique and personal to that individual, they had contemplated everyone on the periphery as well as their own future. The one's I spoke with didn't go through with it because they were afraid they'd not succeed. And then find themselves worse off than they were prior.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

It's certainly a multi faceted issue.

 

[Liquid Psalm]

That is obvious.

 

[[email protected]]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/13/popular-blogger-pens-viral-post-calling-robin-williams-suicide-a-choice-heres-his-response-to-the-hateful-and-violent-reaction-he-received/

Robin Williams didn’t die from a disease, he died from his choice.”

That’s the title of blogger and radio show host Matt Walsh’s controversial blog post that he said immediately sparked a massive array of “hateful and violent” rebuttals. Walsh told TheBlaze that the reaction has been both diverse and overwhelming, with thousands of emails flooding in and readers raging against him on social media.

“I’ve had more people telling me to kill myself than ever before in my life,” Walsh said in an interview Wednesday.

Walsh said he initially assumed that his commentary, which addressed Williams’ death and some of the complex elements associated with suicide, would be confined to his typical readership circle after he posted it Tuesday. He said he was surprised to see it quickly go viral, sparking intense reaction across the board.

Suicide, Walsh said, is something that profoundly disturbs him. To summarize his views, he says that “depression is not a choice, but suicide is” — a contention that has led to intense debate.

“The complete, total, absolute rejection of life. The final refusal to see the worth in anything, or the beauty, or the reason, or the point, or the hope,” he wrote of the decision to take one’s own life. “The willingness to saddle your family with the pain and misery and anger that will now plague them for the rest of their lives.”

Here's my thoughts, particularly on the last statement “The complete, total, absolute rejection of life. The final refusal to see the worth in anything, or the beauty, or the reason, or the point, or the hope, the willingness to saddle your family with the pain and misery and anger that will now plague them for the rest of their lives.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

I disagree with it all. Suicide is hurtful to us. We don't understand it, so we lash out against it, impugning those who do it with all manner of self-serving and impious motivations. We do this out of frustration and pain, for the person we're dealing with didn't die tragically in a car accident and didn't lose a battle with cancer, he died at his own hand.

But to blame the suicidal person is to fundamentally fail to understand the suicidal mind. A depressed person thinks in very tiny circles and a suicidal person thinks in even smaller circles which is why they feel they have no options. They don't kill themselves to hurt others or to "saddle their family with pain and misery" they do so out of sheer despondency and inability to see through their problems to the other side. It's a mental illness of extreme measures and should be thought of as such and people who are depressed and even suicidal, even if we can't understand why, deserve our compassion and our timely intervention if possible.

Suicide is also the act of a man desperate to escape the demons that plague him. It is the final action of destruction visited upon a man by the power of sin.

Mr. Williams' value as a clown cannot be over emphasized and neither can those things which tortured his mind. It should be noted that secular medicine was completely unable to cope with the situation, while if the man had turned to Christ he may have found the relief he needed.

I cannot find anything in the Bible that says its forbidden to commit suicide, however I know of many passages and entire chapters that speak to the effects of demons upon the mind and heart of a man who has rebelled against God. It's called the power of sin and NOTHING can break its influence except Christ.

and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

 

[Dan57]

I agree Choir Loft... "While if the man had turned to Christ he may have found the relief he needed." If all a person has to live for is this world, I'd get pretty depressed too.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

Suicide is also the act of a man desperate to escape the demons that plague him. It is the final action of destruction visited upon a man by the power of sin.

Mr. Williams' value as a clown cannot be over emphasized and neither can those things which tortured his mind. It should be noted that secular medicine was completely unable to cope with the situation, while if the man had turned to Christ he may have found the relief he needed.

I cannot find anything in the Bible that says its forbidden to commit suicide, however I know of many passages and entire chapters that speak to the effects of demons upon the mind and heart of a man who has rebelled against God. It's called the power of sin and NOTHING can break its influence except Christ.

and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...

I disagree. Too many Christians suffer from depression and many take their own lives. I even know one who did when I was growing up. And suicide is a sin because it's the willful murder of one's self, but I don't believe it's an automatic ticket to hell. Culpability is reduced by the state of mind one is in when committing the act; they are beside themselves, not in possession of their higher reasoning faculties. I also have no reason to believe that demons plagued Robin Williams, do you?

 

[aspen]

of course it is a choice, but....

Is it an informed choice? What if it is a child or person with mental / cognitive impairment?

What if it is a bid for attention and ends up killing the person?

There was a really interesting 'This American Life' on today that loosely relates to culpability

what if you had a progressive, neurological desease that is terminal but will take years to kill you? And all you have to look forward to is draining your families resources and energy and morale?

i think people react viciously out of their own fear - and there is nothing that scares the average person more than their own death

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

of course it is a choice, but....

Is it an informed choice? What if it is a child or person with mental / cognitive impairment?

What if it is a bid for attention and ends up killing the person?

There was a really interesting 'This American Life' on today that loosely relates to culpability

what if you had a progressive, neurological desease that is terminal but will take years to kill you? And all you have to look forward to is draining your families resources and energy and morale?

i think people react viciously out of their own fear - and there is nothing that scares the average person more than their own death

I agree that it's not an informed choice, or better put, that one is not in a sound state of mind to make rational decisions. I see people holding suicide to the standard of a well pondered action rather than the desperate seeking of escape by somebody who believes they have no other options.

I disagree that people with terminal diseases should bump themselves off so as to not be a burden to society. We're not talking about despondent people, we're talking about rationalizing voluntary euthanasia, a decision that involves higher reasoning skills and not quite the same discussion as we're having here. Most people are a net drain on the system by the time they reach 50 years old and I believe even the thinking that we're better off without these people leads us down a very dark path.

 

[aspen]

i agree that suicide is never a good choice, but i emphasize with people who have terminal illness who go that route. It is never right.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

i agree that suicide is never a good choice, but i emphasize with people who have terminal illness who go that route. It is never right.

Did you mean empathize?

 

[aspen]

Did you mean empathize?

Sorry, meant "have empathy for"

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

I have empathy too, but not to the point of encouraging them, or even helping them, to end their lives prematurely. Catholics are supposed to be pro life from natural conception to natural death, upholding the value of life as precious even when, and especially when, it's coming to an end. If anyone is terminally ill and in chronic pain, even though I don't fully understand what they're going through, I would still urge them to celebrate the life they have and to offer up their suffering in union with the sufferings of Christ for the conversion of souls, an ancient Catholic practice that we've gotten too far away from.

 

[aspen]

I hope you are not confusing my empathy for being an advocate for euthanasia - that would indeed be a rash judgment.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

I hope you are not confusing my empathy for being an advocate for euthanasia - that would indeed be a rash judgment.

Then I misspoke.